


Are You the Spirit of White?

by ShadowoftheLamp



Series: Deathshipping Week [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ancient Egypt, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 02:05:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19141390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowoftheLamp/pseuds/ShadowoftheLamp
Summary: Ryou is a palace magician, but when a handsome stranger offers him a chance to get away, he can’t refuse. Sort of fairy-tale themed.





	Are You the Spirit of White?

Ryou was a magician. A damned good one too, even at 17. He’d been taken off the street as a child, and his talent and milky skin and hair equally intrigued and horrified the other inhabitants of the palace. His hair said he was a child of the gods, and his power needed to be molded to a weapon. He was trained and trained and trained until he felt like his ba was dry as the desert sand. Whether they thought he had more energy than he did or they just wanted to break him, he didn’t know.

The women found him beautiful. He didn’t much care, preferring to watch the way the young male scribes sweated and practiced in the warm sun, the way their jaws moved when they spoke. He tried to talk to one who had beautiful black hair that curled close to his head like yarn. He was ignored.

His Ka was a cobra, and he coiled it around himself like a shield, lashing out at anything that tried to hurt him. His power grew and they shrunk from him, and he was lonely. He trained harder, but they didn’t see him as trying to protect them and the palace, only as trying to make himself more of a threat.

He started locking himself in his room, barricading himself with food for days on end, and they ignored him still.

It was on the third day of the seventh isolation that someone slipped through his window.

“Are you the spirit of white?” He had hair the color of Ra.

“That sounds like a name they’d give me, so it’s possible,” Ryou said, tearing at a piece of dried meat with his teeth.

“Do a trick for me.”

Ryou chewed, then swallowed. “And what will you give me in return?”

“This.” The stranger held up a beautiful Lapis Lazuli.

“I live in the palace. I can get jewels.” Ryou said, even as he leaned forward.

“I’ll give you a better treasure, then, but you’ll have to show me the trick.” The man leaned forward as well, and Ryou noticed scraps of baby fat on his cheeks. He was a teenager too.

“Alright.” Ryou felt the light in his chest unwind as his Ka did, shimmering blue as she curled around him.

“She’s gorgeous…” The stranger breathed, reaching out to stroke the snake’s side.

Ryou grinned. “Isn’t she? Now, where’s my treasure?”

The stranger simply held out a hand. “I live on the edge of the village. I would take you away.” His hand moved from the Ka to Ryou’s cheek. “I’ve been lonely for a long time, and I can see you are too.”

“I have fine things.”

“But no fine people.” The stranger smiled. “Look at that Ka. Do you think I could keep you if you didn’t want to stay? I escaped a family that feared me for my spirit, and I wanted someone who would understand.”

The snake nuzzled against his golden hair. Normally she hated everyone but Ryou, hissing and baring her fangs.

“I’ll come with you.” Ryou decided. “Four days, and then I will decide if I would like to stay.”

“More than enough.” The stranger’s hand remained extended, and Ryou took it. He had work-worn hands, and Ryou found that he liked them.

The man slid out the window, and even though Ryou really could just walk out the front door, he found himself following him instead. Something about going through the window meant that this was real.

Ryou pulled his hood over his head, but his hair spilled from his forehead and shoulders anyhow. This time, though, the stranger kept him close, and no one approached them. Ryou reached for his hand, intertwining their fingers, and the man flashed him a grin. Ryou found himself smiling back.

They made it back to the man’s house- a simple hut, with mats on the floor and a small garden in the front.

Ryou was used to the luxuries of the palace, but as soon as he saw it, he loved it.

They talked about the weather and the new fashions as the sun beat down on them, sitting in the shade of the hut. The stranger said he’d keep his name until Ryou decided to stay, to call him Kek instead. One of the old gods, of darkness. Ryou wondered at that, considering he clearly enjoyed the sun and had been blessed with golden hair, but he hadn’t shared his name either. Kek was calling him Magician, after all. Even though Ryou liked him, he wasn’t about to hand his name over to a stranger- that would just be asking for trouble.

They had a simple meal that night, some fruit with bird meat. It was new, and Ryou liked that too. They turned in early, and he showed a bit of trust by pretending to fall asleep first. He could feel the stranger watching him until the moon was high above them and his breathing evened, and Ryou opened his eyes to see him relaxed in sleep. He lay on his stomach on the mat, the night’s light reflecting off his skin to make him practically shimmer like a god.

Ryou wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep, but he awoke second to the scent of eggs, and the nervous look on the stranger’s face was quite endearing. He smiled when Ryou happily took the breakfast, before going to make his own. Ryou couldn’t remember the last time someone had made him something he hadn’t asked for.

The day passed with gardening and feeding the chickens. The stranger revealed that his Ka was a bird of fire, and his family worried they’d invoked Ra’s wrath. His father hadn’t been good to him, and when he’d burned the man with his half-formed Ka in rage, he’d been cast out. Ryou summoned his own Ka, and as before she curled up to the stranger, making warmth bloom in Ryou’s chest.

When they slept that night, Ryou pulled his mat a little closer.

When Ryou admitted the next day he could sometimes speak to ghosts, the stranger didn’t turn away, but just asked if he could tell the one who’d domesticated geese if he could have worked harder on making them less bitey. Ryou hadn’t laughed that hard in a while.

Two more days came and went, and as Ra sunk in the sky, the stranger turned to Ryou.

“Well, magician?”

Ryou stroked the back of a cat that had been attracted by the smell of supper. “You’ve offered me companionship, which is more than I’ve gotten before.” He smiled. “It’s Ryou.”

“Amir.” Amir was grinning from ear to ear, and Ryou set his free hand down on top of Amir’s larger one and watched as the sky was bathed in shades of purple and orange when day passed to night.

**Author's Note:**

> I had the idea to write this like a fairy tale, and I hope that came across. It was certainly fun. Comments are very welcome!


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